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| Three Books of Occult Philosophy (Llewellyn's Sourcebook) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Henry Cornelius Agrippa, James Freake, Donald Tyson
Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $49.95 (117.59 RON)
Buy New: $32.97 (77.61 RON)
You Save: $16.98 (39.97 RON) (34%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 65021
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1024
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.8
Dimensions (in): 10 x 7 x 2.2
ISBN: 0875428320
Dewey Decimal Number: 133
EAN: 9780875428321
ASIN: 0875428320
Publication Date: January 1, 1992
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 2 to 4 weeks
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| Customer Reviews:
 One of the Best... October 10, 2007
One of the best books on the subject available. Tyson may have made a few mistakes but he more than makes up for it with the annotations.
A classic of its kind. July 23, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a curiosity from another age. In the 16th Century, much of what we would now regard as science was not based on observation or experiment but, rather like law, based on prescedent and the words of earlier writers and written sources of authority. This book is a treasure trove of contemporary magical beliefs, and techniques for making people fall in love with you, telling the future and so forth. It is very different to a modern text in that it provides little or no actual evidence for its assertions, preferring to quote other sources or simply provide a statement like 'They say that...' though who 'they' are is not altogether clear. Writers of books like this, especially Shakespeare's contemporary, Dr John Dee, are supposed to be the models for Prospero in 'The Tempest.'
This came from a world without medicine, without policemen and without street lights where people had to appeal to dark and unknown forces to find criminals or recover stolen property: by consulting images seen in water, and so forth.
WB Yeats, who subscribed to a kind of Jungian belief in a collective unconscious, used this book as a source of images for some of his poems. His idea was that people would instinctively know what he was talking about as they shared the same unconscious.
It is rather sad to see that some people alive today should accept this book as a scientific text of some sort, but there you go. What is quite interesting about books like this-I live in England- is where, for example, if you are stabbed with a sword the method of curing the wound is to find the sword and treat it, rather than the wound itself. People in this age believed in odd mystical links that are now of great interest to historians and anthropologists.
This book goes where the Golden Dawn never went. November 30, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is a valuable encyclopedia of medieval magick and one of the major sourceworks for the Golden Dawn. There is revelatory information here that the Golden Dawn never incorporated into their magical system. Indepth study of Aggripa's tome will enable one to become an expert in Hermetic magick. A clear understanding of what medieval occultism was all about can be gained from this copiously annotated work.
An occult classic December 11, 2005
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
Every student of occult sciences should have this volume of work in their occult library. It is one of the "bread and butter" grimoires of Western Occultism. A lot of occult philosophical teachings that developed after the age of Agrippa have their foundation in H.C. Agrippa's writings. I am always amazed Agrippa developed such a large and vast body of magickal knowledge as well as knowledge of the natural world. His writings are not easily understood in some chapters but this book is not meant to be read "novel style". It is an occult textbook and one must read it as such.
I would not recommend this book as an introduction to occult science. For someone who only wishes to learn an overall view of occultism this book would be overwhelming if not actually boring. But for the student who is ready to understand some of the foundations of what shaped the Western Mystery tradition as well as develop skills of ceremonial magick this book is a must read. It is a large body of writing and one must be committed to such a reading undertaking but for those who do so you will be rewarded with an insight and grasp of occultism few people will ever take the time to develop. And your occult knowledge will increase each time you study from this book. I have had this book for three years and Agrippa's writings still have much to teach me.
The best book on Occultism December 16, 2004
35 out of 37 found this review helpful
I just purchase Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosphy and I must say so far it has been one of, if not the best, book I've read on occultism, magic, or western occulticism/religion/metaphysics. Here are a few of the things that really impressed me:
For starters, Agrippa seems very modern in that, whether he was aware of it or not, he brings up two points that I've only heard from more contemporary occultists. First, much of his book, to me, seems to tie in with Joseph Cambell's The Power of Myth(which discusses world myths and comparative religion). Agrippa, often when discussing a single concept, simultaneously pulls from hebrew and the Qabalah, christianity and the Bible, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology, and Greek philosophers such as Plato and Pythagoras. It seems that in his mind, all these beliefs and philosophies hold truths in them and he takes them all into consideration, like a scientist would take in all the facts he recieves from the natural world. I'm certain that if Agrippa was fimilair with far east philosophy, such as Taoism and the concept of Yin and Yang, he would have incorporated that too, since it easily ties into a lot of the concepts he already elobarates on through the ideas of multiple religious and spiritual schools of thought. And secondly, the idea that what a magician is really doing is using words, symbols, etc. to focus and strengthen the mind and will, and that it is really the human mind and will that creates all the magic, is also suggested by Agrippa. I've read this theory from Aliester Crowley and another modern occultist (Brennan, I think). Agrippa states that words, numbers, and symbols have power because of the way they interact with our souls and that it is our souls that are actually effecting the world, not the words, symbols, etc. themselves. Further more, while the book has no apparent actual magic rituals, spells, etc., it provides the philosophy and concept behind the magic, which I feel is ultimatly more important. The book is thoroughly annotated, to the point were the footnotes are often longer than the chapters, so that everything is understandable to a modern reader, and provides a great springboard for further and more indepth study into all of Agrippa's sources and influences, and into some of the most important spiritual and philosophical writings in western history. And, just to make me love it more, Agrippa is probably the first occult writer who doesn't write with that annoying pompous, or arrogant attitude, nor talks down or oversimplifies things as if he thinks his readers are to stupid to understand. So many occult writers come off this way, either oversimplifying or overdoing it to the point of sounding arogant or full of themselves. Agrippa talks like an educated scientist, talking to someone of equal intellegence on a subject that is serious, but accessable to all. in his words, occultism and magic don't seem to be some mysterious, shadowy, and dark subject, but rather a divine science and wisdom that can and should be used to elevate all mankind.
So far I've been extremely inspired, pleased, and excited with this book. I strongly suggest this book to anyone and everyone interested in not only occultism, but also religion, spirituality, metaphysics, and even history.
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